How Kitchen Comment Turned Sharon Osbourne Into Ozzy’s Manager

Sharon Osbourne recalled how her response to a comment about a kitchen turned her into the manager she needed to be for future husband Ozzy Osbourne.

The incident took place soon after her falling-out with her father, Black Sabbath manager Don Arden, who objected to her ambitions in trying to launch Ozzy’s solo career in 1979.

“I was having the big fights with my father, and he was calling up CBS Records and saying, ‘Don’t deal with her,’” Sharon said in the SiriusXM documentary Fierce: Women in Music (via Loudwire). “I was having a meeting with the head of the company, and he's looking at me and I'm looking at him, and we don't know what to say to each other. And he said, 'Would you like to see my kitchen that I've just had installed?' And I looked at him and I said, 'I. Don't. Fucking. Cook. Why would I want to see your fucking kitchen in your office?'"

She admitted she was surprised by her behavior, thinking, “Did I just say that? Oh shit!” Deciding that what was done had been done, she recalled, “I said, ‘Now let’s talk.’ This is why I’m here. Let’s talk about Ozzy, okay?’ [He replied,] ‘Oh, yes, sure, of course. … Excuse me. I just thought you’d want to see it.’ After that I’m like, ‘Nah, no thanks.’ And after that I was like, ‘Yeah, this is it!’”

Sharon decided to develop that attitude, which she summarized by saying, “I would go in and think, ‘What the fuck have I got to lose?’ However, she accepted it often made her unpopular. “This business made me, made me, do that to survive,” she argued. “I was like, ‘You’re not gonna beat me down. You’re not gonna beat us down.’ Because that’s what everyone wanted.”

You can hear the full interview with Osbourne on the first episode of Fierce: Women in Music on SiriusXM today at 1PM ET.